I'm about to start a documentary on the subject, so I thought I'd ask... what are your memories of 9/11?

September 11 for you foreigners who write dates the correct way.

Personally, I was in college in WA (state), so I was woken by the news. A friend knocked on my door (waking me up), and told me to turn on the news, the twin towers had been hit. I asked what channel - I was told it didn't matter (one of two times I've received that response). Turned on the TV and it was a picture of the towers smoking (I don't recall if the first tower had fallen by the time I saw it). Ended up going to class as normal. But if I was awake and not in class, my eyes were constantly on the news for the next several days. And in the back of my mind, I was trying to figure out what the hell I would do if I got drafted.

So what are your stories? Curious to hear from people outside the US, too.

I was 13 at the time. My clearest memory of that fateful day is of kicking a blue and white football against the white front wall of our house. I forget whether I first heard of the attacks on the radio or whether I glanced through a window and saw events unfolding on television. I remember going inside to watch the television coverage. What also stands out is the fact that we didn't have any satellite TV at that stage. The Irish broadcaster RTÉ were carrying the coverage from CNN and occasionally going back to the studio in Dublin for voice-over and commentary. I remember watching and knowing that this was a tragic and horrific day. Another memory that stands out was meeting my Dad upon his arrival home from the local newspaper where he worked at the time and mentioning the attacks to him. He hadn't heard about it and we went inside to follow what had happened.

Definitely one of those days that I shall always remember. 18 years ago today...

I was 16 then, it was late afternoon and i was at school. I didn't know what was happening till i got home from school and saw my parents watch television.
We all kept watching the news for hours.. still can't believe what happened then, it was unbelievable

I was 10, I didn't even know what the towers were. I only vaguely remember it, but it was a school night and I was about to go to bed and then for whatever reason my dad put the news on and the first tower had been hit. It was an excuse to stay up a bit, so I watched for a while, the second plane hit, I went to bed about 30 mins later.

"I do not always know what I want, but I do know what I don't want." - Stanley Kubrick

Just watched the 9/11 (2002) documentary. Fucking amazing, and I spent the last ~90m crying. This TV doc is notable for a) containing (what I believe is) the only known footage of the first plant hitting the tower, and b) containing the only known footage from within the towers on 9/11. I watched a doc about this doc (15 years later), so I'd seen quite a bit of the footage. But WOW this doc...

I remember my mom waking me up and saying something had happened; and wasn't sure if there'd be school that day, so she called (there was). She was worried that my uncle (who worked at the tallest building in Seattle) would be in danger. Then at school, we watched some of the news coverage for about 30mins, and then went on with science lessons. Only the history teacher had the foresight to realize that it would be history in the making and just had class watch the news. Somehow I ended up being driven home by the band teacher that day, which I've no clue why.

Its kinda weird to remember these events and then realize that people who grew up in the Cold War mentality treated this like a "duck and cover" situation / that "the Ruskies are attacking!" Whereas I think everyone my age just thought it was like every other random isolated incident.

I was 16, I was about to start my second year at university the week after so I was still enjoying the end of the holidays at home.
It was the beginning of the afternoon and I was watching a TV movie with my brother.
Shortly after the beginning, there was an interruption for a special report showing the first tower hit.
Then we saw the second hit live, and that was the most shocking news we've witnessed for a time ... until the Bataclan attacks where I lost several friends.

I was 30, living in Los Angeles, waiting to start a new job that then disintegrated before my eyes a few days later.
My best friend, who was on the east coast, called me at 6am frantically saying the World trade Center "exploded" (her words in confusion). What I actually woke up to was my two roommates pounding on my door and yelling at me to wake up since my bedroom was where the TV was located.
Two times in my life have I been glued to the news for hours on end: one was 911 and the other was the aftermath following the Boston marathon bombing when I was on lockdown unable to leave home.

One of my roommates (at the time) brother worked at the WTC at the time of 911. That morning he literally got off the train from Brooklyn, walked to street level, saw the first plane make impact, and immediately turned and went back home on the train. There's no way he'd have gotten home if he hadn't done that. He now lives in Tennessee.

I was 9 years old, at my grandparents' house in the countryside and was watching TV when the news, with live reporting after the first tower was hit, came on. I remember not fully comprehending the situation. It felt out of this world.

Last edited by shugs on September 11th, 2019, 12:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I had chem lab at 8am. I was walking back to my dorm, roomate walked pass me to class, "somethings up I saw on tv" we didnt have tvs in our dorm rooms just in the main room. Kind of got to the dorm and just watched on tv.

I was 13 years old and had just started 8th grade (in the state of Delaware). I remember us students kinda hearing whispers among the faculty that something unusual must be going on, then the teacher in the class I was currently in said something vague about some kind of incident in New York. Eventually everyone was dismissed from school later that morning, and only until getting home and turning on the TV did I find out what was really going on. And I remember learning that my homeroom teacher had a family member that worked in the WTC, but thankfully that family member was not in the building at the time.

I was about to go to a meeting when a member of the group called to tell me the news, and that the building where the meeting was supposed to be was closing.

I listened to the radio and every time anyone started talking about what we had done to everybody else they were cut off with something like "Remember Pearl Harbor". I later wrote a poem about that.

My son was living in NY and the father of a friend of his called me to tell me his son had been in touch with him and he was OK.
My son later told me that he had opened Hafez at random (like Virgil in the middle ages, Hafez is regarded as oracular) and landed on a ghazal with the radif "Do not be consumed by grief." He made a rough translation which I put in the Meeting newsletter.

In Quaker meeting the Sunday before I had felt an urge to sing but didn't. The next Sunday the meeting was packed with strangers and after about 40 min of heavy silence I realized that the song I hadn't sung the previous week was just right.

I was editor of a quarterly journal which was just about to go to bed, so we had a hasty meeting to figure how to work 9/11 into it. We did better with the next issue.

I was about to go to a meeting when a member of the group called to tell me the news, and that the building where the meeting was supposed to be was closing.

I listened to the radio and every time anyone started talking about what we had done to everybody else they were cut off with something like "Remember Pearl Harbor". I later wrote a poem about that.

My son was living in NY and the father of a friend of his called me to tell me his son had been in touch with him and he was OK.
My son later told me that he had opened Hafez at random (like Virgil in the middle ages, Hafez is regarded as oracular) and landed on a ghazal with the radif "Do not be consumed by grief." He made a rough translation which I put in the Meeting newsletter.

In Quaker meeting the Sunday before I had felt an urge to sing but didn't. The next Sunday the meeting was packed with strangers and after about 40 min of heavy silence I realized that the song I hadn't sung the previous week was just right.

I was editor of a quarterly journal which was just about to go to bed, so we had a hasty meeting to figure how to work 9/11 into it. We did better with the next issue.

I didn't know you were a Quaker, 3eyes. That's lovely.

My grandfather was a Quaker and my mother is in charge at a Quaker boarding school.

I was about to go to a meeting when a member of the group called to tell me the news, and that the building where the meeting was supposed to be was closing.

I listened to the radio and every time anyone started talking about what we had done to everybody else they were cut off with something like "Remember Pearl Harbor". I later wrote a poem about that.

My son was living in NY and the father of a friend of his called me to tell me his son had been in touch with him and he was OK.
My son later told me that he had opened Hafez at random (like Virgil in the middle ages, Hafez is regarded as oracular) and landed on a ghazal with the radif "Do not be consumed by grief." He made a rough translation which I put in the Meeting newsletter.

In Quaker meeting the Sunday before I had felt an urge to sing but didn't. The next Sunday the meeting was packed with strangers and after about 40 min of heavy silence I realized that the song I hadn't sung the previous week was just right.

I was editor of a quarterly journal which was just about to go to bed, so we had a hasty meeting to figure how to work 9/11 into it. We did better with the next issue.

I didn't know you were a Quaker, 3eyes. That's lovely.

My grandfather was a Quaker and my mother is in charge at a Quaker boarding school.

Nice to see a Society of Friends presence on here!

Thank thee!
I seem to remember Raymond Chandler was raised by Irish Quaker relatives (in England) after his father deserted them. I haven't read enough of him to detect any influence... unless negative?

SpoilerShow

btw, did you get my Finnegans Wake heading in the UK/Ireland challenge? I peruse FW for the multilingual puns, not for understanding.

I was 18, at home on summer break a week before my first year at university started. My two sisters were at school. It was the afternoon and I was in my room (probably reading a book but I can't remember what). The phone rang downstairs and my dad answered it, then he came up the stairs to tell me that my gran had told us to turn on the news.

When I turned on the TV, only the first plane had hit the building. I remember being uncertain as to whether it was a deliberate attack or a tragic accident, and then the shock of seeing another plane hit the second tower a few minutes later and confirm that it was a coordinated terrorist attack.

I was about to go to a meeting when a member of the group called to tell me the news, and that the building where the meeting was supposed to be was closing.

I listened to the radio and every time anyone started talking about what we had done to everybody else they were cut off with something like "Remember Pearl Harbor". I later wrote a poem about that.

My son was living in NY and the father of a friend of his called me to tell me his son had been in touch with him and he was OK.
My son later told me that he had opened Hafez at random (like Virgil in the middle ages, Hafez is regarded as oracular) and landed on a ghazal with the radif "Do not be consumed by grief." He made a rough translation which I put in the Meeting newsletter.

In Quaker meeting the Sunday before I had felt an urge to sing but didn't. The next Sunday the meeting was packed with strangers and after about 40 min of heavy silence I realized that the song I hadn't sung the previous week was just right.

I was editor of a quarterly journal which was just about to go to bed, so we had a hasty meeting to figure how to work 9/11 into it. We did better with the next issue.

I didn't know you were a Quaker, 3eyes. That's lovely.

My grandfather was a Quaker and my mother is in charge at a Quaker boarding school.

Nice to see a Society of Friends presence on here!

Thank thee!
I seem to remember Raymond Chandler was raised by Irish Quaker relatives (in England) after his father deserted them. I haven't read enough of him to detect any influence... unless negative?

SpoilerShow

btw, did you get my Finnegans Wake heading in the UK/Ireland challenge? I peruse FW for the multilingual puns, not for understanding.

Haha, no. I hadn't made that connection to Joyce, although it did intrigue me. I've never actually attempted to read Finnegans Wake. One of these days...

It's something of a coincidence that you should mention Joyce. My family's name pops up in Ulysses!

I was in high school in a business class and the teacher turned on the TV for us to watch the news. I think another teacher had come in the room to tell her about it but hard to remember now.

I remember the next day a friend told me that his dad had said this would be one of the biggest things to happen in our lifetime. I pretty much dismissed that comment at the time but I suppose I was only 13 and didn't totally appreciate the significance of what had happened. Clearly it will be one of the biggest events in my lifetime.

I had chem lab at 8am. I was walking back to my dorm, roomate walked pass me to class, "somethings up I saw on tv" we didnt have tvs in our dorm rooms just in the main room. Kind of got to the dorm and just watched on tv.

Hah! I had chem lab at 12:30pm that day - had to confirm we were holding class before tearing myself away from the news.

I was working as an intern in a corporation with business in the US at the time. After lunch, one of the other intern received an e-mail from a friend working in NYC saying a helicopter crashed in one of the WC tower and he was getting evacuated from his own tower nearby… We started to follow the news on internet and at some point we pulled some of the US visitors out of a meeting to inform them, they were obviously shocked and in disbelief. I did not realize the magnitude of it until I saw it on TV later in the day with my family when back home.

That was one of the more haunting parts of the 9/11 (2002) doc I watched last night - all the people jumping. They didn't show any of them on film, but you could hear the thuds. Thud. Thud. Just loud smacks in the audio. The Fire Chief couldn't let anyone out through the lobby doors because it was too dangerous with debris and people falling. One firefighter they interviewed quipped "How bad does it have to be up there if jumping is the better option?"

Just watched the 9/11 (2002) documentary. Fucking amazing, and I spent the last ~90m crying. This TV doc is notable for a) containing (what I believe is) the only known footage of the first plant hitting the tower, and b) containing the only known footage from within the towers on 9/11. I watched a doc about this doc (15 years later), so I'd seen quite a bit of the footage. But WOW this doc...

That's probably one of my favorite documentaries, and films on the 9/11 subject. It was very high on my 500/400 list until last year when it was no longer eligible.

Anyhow, I was a senior in High School at the time, and the principal made an announcement that WTC had "caught fire" I believe was the term they had used. There wasn't a tv in the classroom that I was in, so, I didn't really get a grasp until I was at my next class.

I was in the process of enlisting into the Army at the time as well. I was supposed to meet with the recruiter later in the week, and told him to hold off for a bit. Eventually, I did enlist, but, that's another story....

I had just been laid off from my first job and was still coming to terms with being unemployed and alone in a city I hardly knew. I remember waking up a little late and walking to my television, turning it on to see smoke pouring out of the first tower and hearing the newscasters (possibly CNN?) speculating that it might be an accident. I was glued to the screen when, a few minutes later, the second plane hit and there could be no doubt it was a coordinated attack.

In shock, I phone a friend (Angela) who had been laid off from the same place a few days before I was and she hadn't heard the news yet. We stayed on the phone with each other for probably the next ten minutes processing what we were seeing, at which point she thought to call her partner (who, coincidentally, is now my manager) to check in on him. She called me back and told me he said his whole office was at a standstill, with everyone just staring at their screens watching things unfold. Eventually managers were telling people to go home if they were too distraught.

I think around then the Pentagon attack occurred, and Angela and I speculated on just how widespread these attacks would be. From my twelfth floor apartment I could just barely see the Parliament Buildings here in Ottawa, and would spend most of the phone conversation looking back and forth from the television screen and those buildings. Every time I heard what I thought was a plane in the distance my heart would sink and I'd imagine them just disappearing from the skyline in an instant. I remember two things I mentioned in our conversation: That this would be one of the most important events of our lifetimes, and that I strongly suspected that it was the work of Osama Bin Laden.

Between the shock of the 9/11 attacks and my job loss, without having something to occupy my time in the days ahead, I had a downward spiral for the next several weeks. Movies filled the void, and I remember averaging 4.25 features per day for an entire month right after the attacks, partly as a way to keep from obsessively watching the news. I wonder to what extent that binging phase fed into my viewing habits today. It's a strange way to begin a hobby.